Steering with an emergency tiller

[Lloyd Sumpter]

Hi folks,

Well, the cable steering finally failed altogether on Far Cove, and I
had to steer with the "emergency tiller" for 60 miles (2 days, 30 miles
each). Here's some thoughts for those who wonder if it can be done. Far
Cove is a Catalina 36 sailboat. The emergency tiller is a pipe about 18"
ling that fits into the rudder post.

- It's not hard to do at all! A bit strange, feeling like a 36-ft dinghy.

- The main problem is that when you're leaning down to handle the tiller,
you can't see where you're going.

- I solved this because of an interesting characteristic: on a tiller and
under power, Far Cove always wanders to port. So I rigged a rope so I
could pull the tiller to port (turning the boat to stbd), and let it
wander the other way. If I had to turn more quickly to port, I used my
foot to push the tiller. Worked great!

- Under sail is MUCH easier than under power, due to the propwash on the
rudder under power.

- Of course, you must disconnect any semblance of wheel steering before
this is practical (this sounds trivial, since you'd only use it if the
primary steering failed, but in Far Cove, although the steering failed,
the cables were still intact)

- It would be handy to have a locking pin to keep the emergency tiller in
the hole in the rudder post.

So don't worry, the emergency tiller is definitely an option if your
primary steering fails.

Lloyd
"Far Cove" Catalina 36

[Wayne B]

Did you need to remove the steering wheel to make room for the
emergency tiller ? That seems to be a "feature" on many boats with
that arrangement.

===================================
On Fri, 13 Sep 2002 17:22:15 GMT, Lloyd Sumpter <lsum...@shaw.ca>
wrote:

[Lloyd Sumpter]

Yes (takes 10 seconds on Far Cove). I think it's safe to assume that if
you're using the emergency tiller, you don't need the wheel.

Lloyd

On Fri, 13 Sep 2002 17:29:35 -0700, Wayne B wrote:

> Did you need to remove the steering wheel to make room for the emergency
> tiller ? That seems to be a "feature" on many boats with that
> arrangement.
>
> ===================================
> On Fri, 13 Sep 2002 17:22:15 GMT, Lloyd Sumpter <lsum...@shaw.ca>
> wrote:
>
>>Hi folks,
>>
>> Well, the cable steering finally failed altogether on Far Cove, and I
>>had to steer with the "emergency tiller" for 60 miles (2 days, 30 miles
>>each). Here's some thoughts for those who wonder if it can be done. Far
>>Cove is a Catalina 36 sailboat. The emergency tiller is a pipe about 18"
>>ling that fits into the rudder post.
>>

<SNIP>

[BillS]

Lloyd Sumpter wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> Well, the cable steering finally failed altogether on Far Cove, and I
> had to steer with the "emergency tiller" for 60 miles (2 days, 30 miles
> each). Here's some thoughts for those who wonder if it can be done. Far
> Cove is a Catalina 36 sailboat. The emergency tiller is a pipe about 18"
> ling that fits into the rudder post.
>

<SNIP>
On an outboard powerboat, you can use the trim tabs to steer if you can keep
the engine(s) centered., I played around some doing this this past weekend
and it worked pretty well as long as you keep your turns broad.
BillS